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Three meetings of note were held in April – Board Study Sessions were held on April 7 and 19.  The Regular Board Meeting was held on April 28^th.   I did not get to attend the April 28^th meeting in person but I would like to thank to Dianna Pharr for assisting in getting me an audio tape of the Meeting to review to write this update.  [FYI, audio tapes of the Board meetings can now be found at the website:   http://www.noelke.org/eanes/ - also current key documents are often found at the website www.keepeanesinformed.com/boardoftrustees.htm]

 

As has been the trend, the most interesting details are often at the Board Study Sessions.  The Study Sessions seem geared to providing an avenue for Supt. Wellman and the EISD administration to keep the Board informed in detail on various topics.  However, now that the new Supt. and the Board have seemed to settle in with each other more, we appear to be getting a little more discussion from the Board on the topics that the administration is bringing to the Study Sessions.   Listed below is a summary of key items brought up in April along with a more detailed discussion of each meeting:

 

Summary

 

One of the big issues discussed that impacts the budget is the teacher salary structure and potential raises.  I seem to see a growing concern on the Board over EISD salaries.  Multiple Board members expressed desires to implement a pay raise this year.  Another big issue is the comment at the Board meeting that Supt. Wellman is consulting with a school facility expert on the issue of how to study our school capacities (including the elementary closure topic).  Supt. Wellman indicated that she is recommending the formation of a Citizen’s task force this fall to formulate options on capacity issues.

 

[Side Opinion: An issue I think that will be of interest to watch in the near future is the tension between how much of a pay raise the Board will support verse how much fund balance to use this coming year to help pay for that raise.  To date I have heard Supt. Wellman state that she is working off a budget assumption of $1.5 million of the fund balance is available to be used this next year – i.e. the assumption that was being used before she arrived.  Interestingly, I don’t recall her ever saying one way or another as to whether she thinks this number is the right number that should be used.  To date she has shown all signs of being a strong leader, hopefully in the near future we will get a feeling as to what her own recommendation is for our fund balance, particularly with regard to the impact the retention of fund balance has on our ability to provide competitive salaries to retain and attract quality teachers] 

 

April 7^th Board Study Session

 

The big topic at this meeting was the re-alignment of middle school schedules.  In addition, a discussion about Middle School Latin was held.

 

Rick Bentley, Asst. Supt. of Curriculum started the discussion.  He stated that a switch from 8 shorter periods per class day to 7 longer periods per class day will be in place next year.  This shift will provide an “equal time schedule” with math/science/social studies/language arts all being one class period per day (as opposed to the current arrangement that includes two language arts classes per day).  Thus, the total math, science and social studies time will increase but the daily total of language arts will decrease.  It was stated that this schedule will meet a goal of providing more math and science time and also be more efficient thus helping out budgetary pressures. 

 

A new language arts academic elective which the administrators called “Power Learning” will also be offered. This will be offered to provide more language arts time to help kids be successful at high school.  The details on this seemed to be still being worked out.

 

Low enrollment electives were also discussed.  In particular, Dr. Wellman noted that low enrollment classes will not be offered.  The class that was discussed was 7^th Grade Latin at Hill Country for which the original 7^th Grade Latin enrollment was 7 kids.  At this point the Board chimed in that there appeared to be some confusion at Hill Country about whether Latin was being offered and it was requested that enrollment be re-opened.  Board Member Ellen Balthazar spoke first and stated that she was concerned that this would impact the Latin program in High School.  Board member Gail King expressed concern as to whether all low enrollment classes were being treated equally.  Board member Paul Stone expressed concern that different course offerings were being considered at the two middle schools and that there was general confusion regarding signing up for Latin.  Supt. Wellman indicated that Latin was being re-opened.  [As a footnote, I have heard that 22 kids ultimately signed up, securing 7^th Grade Latin at Hill Country]

 

On electives, it was noted that there was a cut from 4 coaches to 3 coaches having athletics during the day for an elective course.  Also, some of the music electives are being combined such as all the woodwinds being combined in a single elective.

 

Rick Bentley also stated that the costs of soccer, golf and tennis were being evaluated at the Middle School level.

 

Coach Derek Long made a statement that costs for these three sports was ultimately fairly low

 

Middle School Principal Terri Rogers stated that these are hard decisions but each decision does add up.  She stated that at some point we need to draw the line and say we are about academics and make some sacrifices.  She said a prime focus for her is to not over burden our math, science and language arts classes.

 

April 19^th Board Study Session

 

The big topic of discussion was teacher salaries and various options to increase teacher pay.  Four scenarios were presented by Supt. Wellman.  Scenario A – average increase 1.37% - costs for just teachers $334,000 - costs to do it for all staff a total of $479,000.  Scenario B – average increase 2.25% - costs for just teachers $548,000 - costs to do it for all staff a total of $766,000.  Scenario C – average increase 3.78% - costs for just teachers $920,000 - costs to do it for all staff a total of $1,287,211.  Scenario D – average increase 5.5% - costs for just teachers $1,338,857 - costs to do it for all staff a total of $1,872,446. 

 

It was noted that in general these plans provided higher percentage increases at lower levels of experience than at the higher levels of experience.

 

Supt. Wellman indicated that to have our salaries in the top third in Texas would take a multi-year effort.

 

Board Member Robert Durkee expressed concern that experienced teachers may complain.

 

Board Member Gail King noted that it was her understanding that our salary scale for experienced teachers was more in line with other Central Texas districts.  She noted that she personally like Scenario C.

 

Board Member Jim Strickland asked for the administrators to determine whether our non-teaching staff salaries are already in line with other Central Texas districts and thus to consider whether non-teaching salaries need to be adjusted as much.

 

Board Member Paul Stone stated that it was unsettling that our teacher salaries don’t compare more favorable with surrounding districts.  He stated that how we pay for increases is going to be tough.  He stated that we are going to have to use fund balance and ultimately it may mean higher paid employees but fewer of them.  He said more money needs to get to the teachers and indicated that he liked Scenario C.

 

Paul Stone noted that being in the top third in a couple of years does not cut it for him.  He noted that Highland Pack pays significantly more.

 

Board Member Robert Durkee noted that Highland Park does not offer a lot of services, for example bus service.

 

Board Member Gail King stated that she personally feels like we could use $2.5-2.8 million of fund balance to give teachers $$ now.  She said she would be willing to make the corresponding cuts two years down the road if the legislature does not provide any Robin Hood relief.

 

Board Member Clint Sayers stated that he would like to see us at or near the top of local Central Texas salaries.  He stated that as to what we use on the fund balance there will probably be two numbers – what does each Board member feel comfortable with for fund balance and how far will each Board member actually go (he said these will likely be two different numbers).

 

 

Regular Board Meeting – April 28^th

 

There really is not much to talk about regarding concrete budget issues from the regular Board meeting.  Again it seems that specific cuts are being formulated on a per campus basis and have not been finalized for presentation to the Board.

 

Board Member Gail King indicated that a Revenue Generating Task Force that includes 13 community members has started a short but intensive analysis of revenue issues including a key analysis of unused real estate holdings by the district.

 

Supt. Wellman indicated that the administration is moving forward on a district facility assessment that includes looking at the use of property adjacent to the High School and the capacity/utilization of the elementary schools.  She reiterated that as she indicated in January no school closure would occur this year.  She did say that a facility assessment was needed as a piece of the puzzle of creating a 3-5 year plan for the district. 

 

Supt. Wellman indicated that she is consulting with an outside school facility expert so as to get an outside view as to the steps that should be taken to do a capacity study.

 

Supt. Wellman indicated that she will recommend the formation of a Citizen’s task force in the fall to review the appropriate steps to study our facility usage and to formulate options to use our facilities in the most cost effective and academically effective way.  She indicated that simultaneous with this she hopes to have input from the Revenue Generating Task Force as to evaluations of district owned un-developed real estate.

 

Once again the Board meeting was rather short, though it was slightly longer than the last two meetings due to an approximately 30 minute legislative update from former Board Member Brad Shields regarding the special session on school finance going on in the House and Senate (I did not summarize that update since in just the six days so much has already changed in the legislature).